Portugal recorded an annual aging rate of 3.6 per cent, higher than all EU countries, the study noted….reports Asian Lite News
Portugal currently registers 182 elderly (aged 65 years and above) for every 100 young people (aged up to 14 years), becoming the fastest aging country in the European Union (EU), according to a study published by the Contemporary Portugal Database Pordata.
In the past three decades, the elderly population tripled in the country, according to the study, based on data from the Portuguese National Statistics Institute (INE) and published by Publico newspaper on Sunday.
In 1990, Portugal registered 66 elderly for every 100 young people, Xinhua news agency reported.
Portugal recorded an annual aging rate of 3.6 per cent, higher than all EU countries, the study noted.
According to Jorge Malheiros, researcher at the Center for Geographical Studies of the Institute of Geography and Spatial Planning at the University of Lisbon, the accelerated growth of the aging rate in Portugal is the result of the departure of young people from the country and the entry of foreigners who are already retired.
“This should not be understood as something dramatic,” said the specialist in migration and demography. But he also warned that “societies need the energy of young people”.
“We have to learn to live with an older society,” said Malheiros.
According to Prime Minister Antonio Costa, Portugal will receive a total of 1.6 billion euros ($1.63 billion) from the EU for the program…reports Asian Lite News
The first batch of 13 projects for the Portuguese Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR) were signed in Lisbon to receive funds from the European Union (EU) to overcome the post-pandemic economic crisis.
The projects were selected through the program “Mobilizing Agendas for Business Innovation” in the sectors of agri-food, biotechnology, and electric mobility, reports Xinhua news agency.
According to Prime Minister Antonio Costa, Portugal will receive a total of 1.6 billion euros ($1.63 billion) from the EU for the program.
Still, there is a “possibility of adding another 2.3 billion euros” if Portugal uses loans from the EU, he said.
Costa said that the funds will be used to “structurally change the profile of the Portuguese economy”, and create “high-technology exporting sectors”.
In addition to the 13 projects financed, there are still another 38 ones that have already been selected to receive European funds in the coming months.
A negative RT-PCR Test (or similar NAAT test) – 72h before boarding, or a negative Laboratorial Rapid Antigen Test- 24h before boarding (according to the European Commission list)…reports Asian Lite News
Portugal welcomes all visitors, regardless of their country of origin or reason for visiting.
With its mild climate, 3,000 hours of sunshine per year, and magnificent contrasting landscapes within its seven regions, as well as superb cuisine, fine wines, and hospitable people, Portugal is the ideal year-round vacation destination.
Portugal is known for its mild, sunny climate and diverse landscapes, which range from the magnificent coastal beaches to the golden plains of the Alentejo, the verdant mountains of the interior, and the peaceful, lush nature of the Azores and Madeira islands.
It is also known for its long history and imposing heritage, for its dynamic culture, for its unique, comforting cuisine full of flavours and aromas, and for its relaxed, simple, and unrivalled setting, with open arms for those who visit and return. Portugal is home to the world’s oldest demarcated wine region – the Douro, a UNESCO World Heritage Site where Port Wine is produced – as well as one of Europe’s oldest universities, the magnificent University of Coimbra, which was founded in the 13th century and is also classified by UNESCO. The land of the Discoveries, Fado, and age-old traditions bound together by a vast sea.
“India has always been a strong source market for us, and in the pre-covid period, we saw a significant increase in tourists from India. We can’t wait to welcome back Indian visitors to Portugal,” says Claudia Matias, Director, Visit Portugal India.
With over eight centuries of history and a happy mix of cultures and traditions, we are one of Europe’s oldest nations. Portugal is a modern, cosmopolitan country with a plethora of leisure activities and places to visit and explore with your family, partner, or on your own.
Visitors arriving on the mainland Portugal from India, will be required to present the following documents as mandate & no quarantine will be obligatory upon arrival. The document includes:
A negative RT-PCR Test (or similar NAAT test) – 72h before boarding, or a negative Laboratorial Rapid Antigen Test- 24h before boarding (according to the European Commission list)
Exception, children under 12 do not need to present certificate or test.
The arc of history sometimes bends in unexpected ways as seen in the Portuguese leadership 60 years after the liberation of Goa…writes Arul Louis
Soon after the liberation, Portugal’s dictator Antonio de Oliveira Salazar vowed that Goa would always be a part of Portugal and announced that “the functioning of the organs of government of the Province of India” would continue from Lisbon.
In a twist to that claim, Portugal is now led by people of Indian descent with family ties to the former colony: Prime Minister Antonio Costa, Finance Minister Joao Leao and Planning Minister Nelson de Sousa.
Indian-origin leaders shine in Portugal
“I am very proud of visiting my father’s land as prime minister, and especially the first prime minister of Indian origin in the European Union. This visit has a strong emotional side in the personal motivation,” Costa said during a visit to India in 2017.
Costa’s grandfather Luis Afonso Maria da Costa was from Margao, where his relatives still live and his 200-year-old ancestral home is located, according to the Portuguese American Journal.
Luis Costa emigrated to what was then another Portuguese colony, Mozambique, where the prime minister’s father Orlando da Costa was born in the capital Maputo.
The elder Costa was a writer and his son released an English translation of his book, Sem Flores Nem Coroas (Without Flowers or Wreaths) while visiting India.
The journal reported that Costa’s nickname is ‘Babush’, Konkani for “Little Boy”.
Running counter to the conservative trend in Europe, Antonio Costa who was the General Secretary of the Socialist Party became Prime Minister in 2015 after getting enough parliamentary votes with the backing of leftist parties, including the Communists and the Greens.
He was re-elected in 2019.
Antonio Costa started out as a member of the Lisbon City Council and on the road to Prime Ministership served as the minister for parliamentary affairs and for internal administration.
He has also been a Vice President of the European Parliament.
Finance Minister Leao is the grandson of Leao Fernandes, a professor at a lyceum in Panjim originally from Sarzara, according to O Heraldo.
Joao Leao’s father Claudio Fernandes moved to Portugal and worked for the government, according to the publication.
Joao Leao has a PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where his thesis advisor was Abhijit Banerjee, the Nobel laureate in Economics.
Indian-origin leaders shine in Portugal
Following his grandfather’s footsteps, he started off as an academic and became the secretary of state for budget in 2015 and rose to finance minister last year.
A specialist in finance and economy, de Sousa was born in India, according to his official biography.
He became the secretary of state for trade and services in 1999 and for development and cohesion in 2015 and was appointed planning minister in 2019.
He also did stints as the general director of the Industrial Association and as Lisbon’s municipal director of finance.
Salazar railed in 1962 against the UN Security Council where a Western-sponsored resolution demanding that India withdraw from Goa was vetoed by the Soviet Union.
He said it was “better to consider it (the UN) defunct on the spot” and predicted that Portugal would be among the first countries to leave the world organisation.
But history marches on to its own beat: the UN’s Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is from Portugal.
And he is married to Catarina Marques de Almeida Vaz Pinto who was born in Goa.
“Her father was a doctor and the family moved back to Lisbon after it became part of IndiaeBut we have been back to visit, to see where she was born, where she was baptised,” Guterres has recalled.
India was admitted as an Associate Observer of CPLP in July 2021 and is committed to deepen its historic relations with the Lusophone countries…Reports Asian Lite News.
Minister of State for External Affairs Meenakashi Lekhi will pay an official visit to Portugal and Spain from September 12 to 17, 2021, the Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement on Saturday.
According to the MEA, during her visit to Portugal from September 12-14, MoS Lekhi will have bilateral talks with her counterpart Secretary of State for International Affairs and Cooperation Francisco Andre.
She will also meet Foreign Minister of Portugal Augusto Santos Silva and Secretary of State for Internationalization Eurico Brilhante Dias in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. A bilateral agreement on the recruitment of Indian citizens to work in Portugal will be signed during the visit.
As per the MEA, the MoS would also meet the Minister of Culture of Portugal, Graça Maria da Fonseca and the Executive Secretary of the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP), Zacarias da Costa.
India was admitted as an Associate Observer of CPLP in July 2021 and is committed to deepen its historic relations with the Lusophone countries.
She will also meet members of the Indian community and attend an event marking the rich cultural heritage of India as part of the Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav celebrations.
In the second leg of her two-nation trip, she will land in Spain on September 15 on a three-day visit. During her visit, as per the MEA, MoS Lekhi will hold discussions with her counterpart, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Ángeles Moreno Bau and meet other senior dignitaries in the Spanish government.
MoS Lekhi to visit Portugal and Spain from September 12 to 17
The MoS will also inaugurate ‘The Beatles and India’ exhibition at Casa de la India, Valladolid and deliver a talk on India’s Development Cooperation at the Spain India Council Foundation.
She will also interact with Indologists and Indophiles, including ICCR Alumni, and the Indian Community in Spain.
India enjoys warm and friendly relations with both Portugal and Spain. The visit of the MoS, which is the first in-person official engagement with both countries since the Covid19 pandemic, is expected to provide fresh momentum to bilateral ties. (India News Network)
This new arrangement will add new destination for Indian migrant workers in an EU member nation…reports Asian Lite News
The Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday approved the signing of an agreement on the recruitment of Indian citizens to work in Portugal.
This agreement would set an institutional mechanism for partnership and cooperation between India and Portugal on sending and accepting Indian workers and a Joint Committee will be set up to follow up the implementation of the same.
This new arrangement will add new destination for Indian migrant workers in an EU member nation, especially in the context of many Indian workers who have returned to India following the Covid-19 pandemic.
“It will provide new opportunities for skilled Indian workers and professionals. With the conclusion of this agreement, Portugal and India will have a formal arrangement for recruitment of Indian workers”, the government said in a statement.
Now the Indian workers would have enhanced job opportunities to work in Portugal and the government to government mechanism will ensure that the movement of workers takes place smoothly with the maximum support from both sides.
During the Covid pandemic, many Indians working abroad have lost their jobs because of the lockdown and Covid-19 protocol and they returned to India.
The services sector dominates the Portuguese economy, with tourism particularly important and there has been an ample job scope for Indians in the telecommunications industry, as well as in property, aerospace and biotechnology.
The capital town Lisbon has developed into a start-up hub in the last few years, with IT having become one of the country’s key growth area.
Casual work is common as the Portuguese economy relies heavily on tourism, resulting in an abundance of teaching English as foreign language posts.
The decision to move Portugal – including Madeira and the Azores – to the amber list follows increased concern in the spread of variants of coronavirus, including a mutation of the Delta variant, reports Asian Lite Newsdesk
Britons’ hopes of a summer holiday abroad is hanging in the balance as no new countries have been added to the UK’s green travel list and Portugal has moved to amber.
The first update to the government’s traffic light list for international travel has taken place on Thursday with Portugal moved to the amber list in a bid to safeguard people against virus variants and protect vaccine rollout.
Meanwhile, seven countries – including Sri Lanka and Egypt – have also been added to the travel red list. All changes to the lists will come into effect at 4am on Tuesday 8 June.
The decision to move Portugal – including Madeira and the Azores – to the amber list follows increased concern in the spread of variants of coronavirus, including a mutation of the Delta variant.
The government said situation in Portugal has required swift action to protect the gains made with the vaccine rollout. It said there has been an almost doubling in the COVID-19 test positivity rate in Portugal since the first review for traffic light allocations, far exceeding the ONS estimated national positivity rate in the UK.
More significantly, according to data published on GISAID, 68 cases of the Delta variant of concern have been identified in Portugal, including cases of the Delta variant with an additional, potentially detrimental, mutation, the government said.
“The public has always known travel will be different this year and we must continue to take a cautious approach to reopening international travel in a way that protects public health and the vaccine rollout,” said Transport Secretary Grant Shapps.
“While we are making great progress in the UK with the vaccine rollout, we continue to say that the public should not travel to destinations outside the green list,” he added.
Public Health England is investigating the Delta variant and mutation, to better understand whether it could be more transmissible and less effectively tackled by vaccines.
The full list of additional countries added to the ‘red list’ includes Afghanistan, Bahrain, Costa Rica, Egypt, Sri Lanka, Sudan, and Trinidad and Tobago.
While the number of ‘green list’ destinations remains low, the government is urging the public not to travel to amber classified destinations to play their role in protecting public health. This is due to the prevalence of variants of concern and general rates of coronavirus being greater in amber destinations, meaning the risk to public health is also greater.
People returning to the UK require proof of a negative test, taken within 3 days before the service on which they will arrive in England departs. Those returning from amber countries must also book and pay for day 2 and day 8 COVID-19 travel tests for when they return to the UK; only the day 2 test is required for those returning from green countries.
Airport
UK on Tuesday reported zero daily coronavirus-related deaths for the first time since March last year.
Earlier, a scientist advising the government said the progress of Britain’s vaccination program does not mean that the fight against coronavirus is over.
Professor Adam Finn from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, which advises the government on vaccine priority, said the country remains vulnerable as large numbers of people remain unvaccinated.
“The idea that somehow the job is done is wrong — we’ve still got a lot of people out there who have neither had this virus infection nor yet been immunized and that’s why we’re in a vulnerable position right now,” he told the BBC.
Scotland First Minister Nicola Sturgeon
Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon announced Tuesday that the easing of restrictions will be delayed in much of Scotland, which will remain in Level Two restrictions amid concerns over the spread of coronavirus variant first detected in India.
Experts have warned that coronavirus may continue to evolve for years to come, and eventually it is likely current vaccines will fail to protect against transmission, infection, or even against disease caused by newer variants.
Modi was slated to visit Portugal for the India-European Union (EU) leaders’ summit on 8 May and also France for bilateral talks and meeting with the French President Emmanuel Macron…reports Asian Lite News.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has called of his visits to Portugal and France in May in the wake of the surge in Covid-19 cases in the country, the Ministry of External Affairs said.
Modi was slated to visit Portugal for the India-European Union (EU) leaders’ summit on 8 May and also France for bilateral talks and meeting with the French President Emmanuel Macron.
“In view of the covid-19 situation, it has been decided, in consultation with the EU and Portuguese leadership, to hold the India-EU Leaders’ Meeting in a virtual format on 8 May 2021,” an Indian foreign ministry statement said on Tuesday.
“The India-EU Leaders’ Meeting in the EU+27 format, the first time that such a meeting is being held, reflects the shared ambition of both sides to further deepen the Strategic Partnership,” it said.
PM Modi may join India-EU summit via video-conference, Portuguese media citing a diplomatic source wrote “We are working with the European institutions and the Government of India to conduct the summit by video-conference, with the EU [leaders] physically present in Portugal”.
Two days ago, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson had cancelled his visit to India, for the second time in the wake of the surge in number of Covid-19 infections in the country. It is now uncertain whether that summit will happen virtually on 26 April or it will be postponed.
“The two sides will be holding a virtual meeting in the coming days to launch plans for a transformed India-UK relationship,” the MEA said in a statement. “Both leaders attach the highest importance to taking the India-UK partnership to its fullest potential and propose to remain in close touch in this regard and look forward to an in-person meeting later in the year.”
